• Seat-of-the-pants

    Origin

    From seat + of + the + pants.

    Full definition of seat-of-the-pants

    Adjective

    seat-of-the-pants

    1. (chiefly US, idiomatic) Done by feel, guess, or trial and error rather than by careful planning, thought or technique.
      • 1984 Jan. 9, Charles Alexander and Frederick Ungeheuer, "The Billion-Dollar Boys," Time:The new pension-fund managers are an eclectic group, displaying a spectrum of styles and strategies. Some rely chiefly on computers and charts, while others are more likely to trust their seat-of-the-pants judgment.
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